'Politically Motivated': AP High Court Junks PIL Challenging Display Of Deputy CM's Portraits In Public Offices

The PIL petition, filed by Yemu London Rao, was stated to "safeguard public interest” and argued that the said act of displaying the portraits of the Deputy Chief Minister violated the principles enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

Dismissing the PIL petition, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Ravi Cheemalapati observed,

“We fail to understand as to how the display of a portrait or a picture in a Government office of a Deputy Chief Minister would in any manner affect any of the rights of a citizen under the Constitution in the absence of any specific statutory prohibition on such display. The petition is clearly filed with a political motive.”

The Division Bench referred the judgment of the Supreme Court in Dattaraj Nathuji Thaware v. State of Maharashtra [(2005) 1 SCC 590] and State of Uttaranchal v. Balwant Singh Chaufal [(2010) 3 SCC 402], where it was held that public interest litigation is a weapon which has to be sparingly used, with great caution and circumspection, and Courts must encourage only genuine and bonafide PIL and effectively discourage PILs filed for extraneous considerations.

Against this backdrop, the Court observed that the PIL petition was “clearly politically motivated” and accordingly dismissed the same.

Case Details:

Case Number: WP(PIL) NO: 169 of 2025

Case Title: Yemu Kondal Rao v. The State Of AP and Others

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